


take your time

by demonicneonfishy



Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [23]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Explosions, Gen, Major Character Injury, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani Friendship, POV Nile Freeman, Post-Canon, Temporary Character Death, They're best friends okay, do they interact much in canon? no, will this stop me? also no
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29660211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demonicneonfishy/pseuds/demonicneonfishy
Summary: “What happened?” she asks weakly. She’s lying on her back, Joe kneeling beside her, but Nicky and Andy are nowhere in sight.“Stepped on a landmine. It’s gonna hurt for a while, but you’ll be okay.”
Relationships: Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani
Series: february angst-fest (febuwhump 2021) [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141784
Comments: 3
Kudos: 63





	take your time

**Author's Note:**

> day 23 of febuwhump 2021  
> prompt: "don't look."

Andy only concedes her “I always go first rule” on rare occasions. This is one of them. She’d protested, but Nile and Joe had pleaded with her to see reason, and Nicky had, rather worryingly, threatened to drug her and lock her in her room so she couldn’t go on the mission at all.

The reason, in this case, being the danger of landmines. Andy had told them she’d be careful, but none of them were willing to risk it. And so Nile went first, far enough in front of the others that if she did trip anything, the blast wouldn’t get them. Joe and Nicky had each offered to go instead, but she’d told them she could handle it.

So far, it’s going fairly well, and Nile’s hoping she’ll make it out of this mission without getting blown to pieces. She really doesn’t want to regrow a limb, not after the stories the others had told her.

Almost the moment after she thinks it, the ground explodes beneath her feet. There’s a moment of burning, blinding pain, and then the world goes dark.

* * *

The first thing she’s aware of is the pain in her legs.

“-come on, Nile,” a voice is saying above her. She takes a deep breath and coughs, opening her eyes.

Joe smiles down at her. “There you are.”

“What happened?” she asks weakly. She’s lying on her back, Joe kneeling beside her, but Nicky and Andy are nowhere in sight.

“Stepped on a landmine. It’s gonna hurt for a while, but you’ll be okay.”

“Nicky and Andy?” she manages.

“They went on ahead.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want you to be alone when you woke up. They’ll be okay, Nicky’s making sure Andy doesn’t trip anything.”

She wants to say something else, but is cut off by a fresh spike of pain and has to bite back a scream. Joe takes her hand, and she squeezes so tightly it must hurt, but he doesn’t let go. 

She tries to sit up, to see the damage, but Joe pushes her back down gently. “Don’t look. Trust me.”

“How bad is it?”

Joe considers for a moment. “You want the honest answer or the nice one?” 

For some reason, that manages to make her laugh, but it sounds more like choking, and Joe’s expression softens. “Try not to move too much, okay?” he tells her.

“Don’t think I could if I tried,” she responds. “What happens after this?”

“Well, you and I get the hell out of here once you think you can move, then you’re gonna want to eat your bodyweight and sleep for about 17 hours. Then you’ll be back to normal.”

“How long til that happens?”

Joe glances down at, presumably, what remains of her legs. “Little while longer.”

“When was the last time this happened to you?” She needs him to talk, needs  _ anything _ to distract her from the pain. Joe seems to pick up on it, because he thinks for a moment, then starts speaking.

“Last time I had to completely regrow a limb would be… 1980s, I think? Pretty similar situation, actually. Too close to an explosion, lost my legs. It’s easier if the limb stays intact, you can just reattach it, which isn’t  _ fun _ , but it’s better than regrowing the whole thing.”   
“You ever lost your head?”

Joe winces. “No, but Nicky and Andy have, and it is… horrible to watch. You reattach it like other limbs… or are you reattaching the body to the head? We’ve never quite figured that out. Anyway, you reattach it, but it’s definitely one of the worst to come back from. But, thankfully, you usually don’t wake up until your head gets reattached. Or, at least, we’ve always managed to do that before the person wakes.”   
“Were you the one that had to…”

“Andy, no. That happened before Nicky and I were even born. Nicky, yes.”

“Must have been hard.” She bites back another cry, squeezing Joe’s hand again. 

“Oh, I was a mess. But he was okay in the end.” Joe glances down at her legs again. “You’re almost there, but the last part is  _ really _ gonna hurt.”

She’s about to ask what he means, but then the pain hits. It’s absolutely  _ agonizing _ , and she can’t stop herself from crying out this time.

“Almost there,” Joe says. “It’s almost over, kid, you’re almost done, you’re going to be okay, I promise…”

He keeps talking until the pain,  _ finally _ , fades, and she can breathe again.

“Ow,” she says, and Joe laughs. 

“Always hurts when your feet regrow.” He stands up and offers her his hand. “Careful when you stand up. You’ll be a little unsteady.”

A  _ little _ is an understatement. The moment she gets up, her legs give out, and she almost falls over. Would have, if it hadn’t been for Joe catching her. 

“Hold on to me,” he says. “It’ll take a second for you to adjust.”

She slings her arm around his neck, and together, they walk away.

**Author's Note:**

> if you couldn't tell from the tags and also the fic joe and nile are very important to me personally  
> -  
> i'm demonicneonfishy on tumblr too if you wanna come say hi!! (or yell at me for the angst)


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